Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

The U.S. State Department responded to the allegations on Wednesday by saying that if they were true, "it would put Lebanon at a significant risk."

Haj Hassan, meanwhile, told Al-Manar TV that since Israel possessed all kinds of weapons, it's only natural for Lebanon to have the means to defend itself against an Israeli attack.

On Tuesday, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam reported that Syria had shipped ballistic Scud missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The White House said it has raised concerns with Syria about the report.

Israeli officials say the introduction of Scuds could alter the strategic balance with Hezbollah. Scud missiles have several times the range and explosive firepower of Katyusha rockets and would pose a much more serious threat.

In Washington, the Syrian Embassy dismissed the allegations of shipping scud missiles and accused Israel of trying to divert attention from questions about Israel's nuclear program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear arms, though it does not confirm nor deny this.

You have got to admire Nasrallah and Hizbullah; they are the only Arabs willing to stand up and tell USrael to butt out! And it is not all talk, Nasrallah speaks from a position of strength and confidence.

He rightly tells USrael that it is the right and duty of Lebanon to acquire whatever weapons it needs to defend itself. After the repeated invasions by Israel, does anyone blame Hizbullah?

Compare this confidence and clarity with the insipid niceties of the Rabbit of Syria. He denies that weapons are reaching Hizbullah; he wants improved relations with Washington; he wants to restart "indirect negotiations" with Israel.

Or how about that idiot, Qadhafi, who has just made the statement that even though the US and Israel act as one, he has no problems with the US! Further, he stated that resisting US imperialism is not his problem, but it is the problem of the rest of the world! According to him, Libya can't do anything to help the Palestinians. Finally he made the astounding statement that it is foolish to resist the US since it is a super power!

Too bad the Palestinians do not have anything even approaching Hizbullah. I have a sneaky suspicion, based on several indicators, that an USraeli attack on Lebanon could be imminent; Hizbullah is taking the threat seriously. Before attacking Iran, USrael has to try to eliminate the retaliatory capabilities of Hizbullah.

I am also sick and tired of Wheelchair Palestinian and other "well-informed"critics, posings as Generals, comfortably sitting behind a computer at home, stirring up shit, smearing resistance movements/states. They think they are smarter than Palestinian freedom fighters putting their at risk 24x7x360.
To those I say Again: If you cannot help, your silence is appreciated.

Tony is stirring up shit, Zionist shit. I agree with the guest, and Bilal's comments, and would add, Hezbullah is a resistance organization, Syria is a State.

Khara, used to say: Syria say something, and do something else. Everybody knows what syria did for Hezbullah and still doing. Without Syria, at the best Hezbullah shall be another Besiged Hamas.

I spoiled a hell of time asking Tony, not to compare and realize the Geopolitics Facts.

I don't think he is Stupid. He is doing his Job, stirring up Zionist shit, to discredit Hamas and its supportes, Iran, Turkey and Syria at the top.

BTW, Hezbullah first denied the Iraeli claims:

In an interview with the paper, Hezbollah sources denied the claims and said this was an Israeli attempt to divert the world's attention from the construction in occupied east Jerusalem and the settlements.

I think they did well, instaed of denial they simply said: Our Missiles Are None of Israel's Business. Thus keeping Usrael in mess, to believe it did hapenned or it didn't, in full or partial??

If I have read Nasrallah's response to Israeli threats guess it Hapenned, even before Damuscuss meeting with Assad and Ahmedanjad.

Based on Tony's indicators, Tony's message: USraeli attack on Lebanon could be imminent;

Connecting, the dots: Nasrallah's interview focusing on Tribunal for LebanonMarch 14 momvement campain on Hezbullah Arms.US Denial mixed messages.I would say, an attack on Lebanon is not imminent. Usrael shall use it's last Arrow, the Tribunal for Lebanon, and its assets in Lebanon.

The alleged deal to transfer the Scud missiles to Hezbollah has fueled cross-border tensions with Israel and could cast doubt on U.S. President Barack Obama's diplomatic outreach to Syria.

"We think the intent is there," a senior U.S. official said of Syria transferring the missiles to Hezbollah, a Iranian- and Syrian-backed Islamist group that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

But the senior official and two others briefed on the case said it was unclear whether the missiles,... were actually handed over in full to the guerrilla group. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "We believe a transfer of some kind occurred but it is unclear if the rockets themselves have changed hands," the senior official said.

A partial transfer could involve weapons parts, documents or funding, other officials said.

Another official said doubts were growing that Syria had delivered the Scuds in full and allowed them to transit to Lebanese territory: "We don't believe it happened." "It's unclear at this point that a transfer has occurred ... and the United States has no indications that the rockets have moved across the border," a third U.S. official said..."

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya has called for the resumption of resistance attacks against Israeli occupation in the West Bank to bridle its growing atrocities against the Palestinian people.

He said in a statement at a special session for the Palestinian legislative council held at the premises of the ministry of prisoners that resistance should prioritize the issue of Palestinian prisoners.

Haneyya also advocated Palestinian unity on national basis away from foreign dictates, adding that the Arabs should assist the Palestinians through ending the American pressures on the Palestinian people.

The premier asked the Arabs and Muslims to assume their responsibility in supporting Palestinian prisoners and their relatives through the establishment of a fund to support them.

Addressing the same session allocated for prisoners, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the first deputy PLC speaker, urged all Palestinian forces and factions to unite in support of the prisoners' issue.

He asked Arab and Islamic parliaments to hold emergency sessions to discuss the issue of Palestinian prisoners and means of liberating them.

Bahar also asked the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference to table the issue of prisoners at international platforms and to demand the prosecution of Israeli war criminals.

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian minister of prisoners in Gaza and head of the higher national committee in support of prisoners Mohammed Al-Ghoul has renewed his call on Palestinian resistance factions to capture more Israeli soldiers to trade them for Palestinian prisoners.

Ghoul, addressing the sit-in organized in solidarity with prisoners in front of the Red Cross offices in Gaza on Saturday, said that the freedom of prisoners was inevitable.

Tens of relatives of those prisoners had joined the sit-in and went on hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners.

Saber Abu Karsh, the director of Wa'ed society for prisoners, spoke at the rally asserting importance of uniting prisoners in their strike and protest steps against Israeli repression.

Abu Obaida, the spokesman of the Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas, said that Hamas would continue seeking to release all Palestinian prisoners, describing it as a stable strategy.

He said in a statement on Qassam website on Saturday that his armed wing would not stop working toward that end.

Hamas MPs in the West Bank, meanwhile, expressed outrage at the martyrdom of a Palestinian captive in Israeli occupation jails while in solitary confinement.

They said on Saturday that the death of Ra'ed Abu Hammad in Eichel prison and before him about 200 others in occupation jails was not enough to make the world act as it did to demand the release of one Israeli soldier who was captured from his army tank.

In a new provocative measure aimed at narrowing Palestinian horizons and consolidating the Israeli grip on the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has issued new military orders that would enable the Israeli occupation army to deport thousands of Palestinians from their homes and places of residence in the West Bank.

The new orders define as "infiltrator" any Palestinian or non-Palestinian living in the West Bank but not bearing an Israeli-issued identity card or special permit issued by the Israeli occupation army.

Thus, even Palestinians who were born in the West Bank and have been living there all their lives, but are not in possession of Israeli documents, would be viewed as "infiltrators" who could be deported at a moment's notice.

Moreover, under the new rules, violators could face immediate expulsion or be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

A report on the new rules in the Israeli press this week pointed out that Israel would be able to deport tens of thousands of Palestinians. However, the report didn't reveal the destination to which the prospective expellees would be deported.

In the past, Israel deported many Palestinians to Jordan and Lebanon. However, conditions have become considerably tougher for Israel to do it again, given the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and the delicate situation on the Israeli-Lebanese borders especially since the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.

The military order, which has gone into effect on Tuesday, will primarily target thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who have resided in the West Bank.

It also targets Palestinian returnees, many of whom are married to local spouses, who have returned to the occupied territory following the Oslo process and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Furthermore, it might target foreign peace activists who arrive in the West Bank to monitor Israeli violations of international law and encourage non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation.

So far, Israeli government officials have refrained from commenting on the new rules and confirming or denying their existence. This silence, observers notice, may be intended to test Palestinian, Arab and international reactions before formally adopting the draconian measures on the ground.

Predictably, the new harsh rules have been strongly condemned by Palestinian and Arab officials as well as by human rights groups.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic resistance group, called the measure a "continuation of the systematic ethnic cleansing of our people which started in 1948".

"At a time when Jews are commemorating the German holocaust, Israel is committing a silent holocaust against the Palestinian people," said one Hamas spokesman in the West Bank, who did not want his identity to be known, apparently for fear that he might be arrested either by the Israelis or the PA regime.

Both Hamas and Fatah vowed to resist the new measures "proactively", saying that deporting Palestinians from their ancestral homeland was tantamount to "ethnic cleansing".

Salam Fayyad, the Western-favoured prime minister of the PA government said the new measures contradicted international law as well as UN Security Council decisions which condemn forced deportations. "It is clear that with these measures Israel is trying to deepen the hold of its occupation in the West Bank and facilitating more Israeli land grabs."

PA official Saeb Ereikat labelled the Israeli move "an assault on ordinary Palestinians, and an affront to the most fundamental principles of human rights. "The Palestinians have been morphed into criminals in their own homes."

Mahmoud Abbas, the increasingly reticent PA president, has so far remained silent, ostensibly opting to raise the issue with the international community through diplomatic channels.

The Obama administration and the European Union have not reacted to the new Israeli provocations in the West Bank.

A Jordanian government spokesman said this week that Israel had assured Jordan that the new rule wouldn't go into effect. However, there has been no confirmation of the veracity of the Jordanian spokesman's statement either by Israel or the PA.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has also condemned the new Israeli measures, saying that "it is hard to establish peace in the region due to Israeli behaviour. We reject such measure and we call on the international community to bear responsibility." Moussa said that an Arab League meeting will discuss the situation.

Last month, the Arab League held a summit meeting in Sirte, Libya, which focussed on the Palestinian cause and Israeli provocations, including the Judaising of East Jerusalem and the continued expansion of Jewish settlements. However, the outcome of the meeting was widely viewed as mediocre and generally ineffective, as a number of US regional allies pressed participants for mild resolutions that would allow for the continuation of the "peace process" under American auspices.

The stringent Israeli measure, which human rights activists say amounts to a declaration of war on Palestinian demography, has also been denounced by 10 Israeli civic and human rights groups which urged Defence Minister Ehud Barak to rescind the new rules.

The groups said the military orders in question were so vague and sweeping that virtually all West Bank inhabitants were potentially at risk. The groups argued that the military instructions didn't define what permits were required to shield against deportation.

The new threatened spate of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in the West Bank coincides with the holocaust commemoration anniversary in Israel, an annual ritual meant to extort world sympathy and especially divert attention from Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, such as last year's brutal onslaught against the Gaza Strip.

Some of Israel's critics have compared the Israeli approach against the Palestinians, including the policy of deportation, with Nazi Germany's notorious lebensraum policy (German for "living space"), a doctrine which prevailed in Germany in the early 20th century teaching that the country needed new land to expand in, especially towards the east.

Lebensraum became a major motivation for German territorial aggression after 1937. Israel increasingly refers to the West Bank, which the Israeli army occupied in 1967, as Eretz Yisrael (land of Israel). Sometime the same term is applied to Jordan which some Jewish leaders call "the eastern land of Israel". (see p.6)

17/04/2010 A much-awaited international two-day conference on disarmament and non-proliferation of atomic weapons has started in the Iranian capital on Saturday.

Top Iranian officials slammed “atomic criminal” the United States and called for its suspension from the UN atomic watchdog. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, in a message to the conference, said the use of nuclear weapons was "haram", meaning religiously prohibited, and branded Washington as the world's "only atomic criminal."

"Only the US government has committed an atomic crime. The world's only atomic criminal lies and presents itself as being against nuclear weapons proliferation, while it has not taken any serious measures in this regard," Sayyed Khamenei said in his message which was read out at the start of the meeting.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went a step further and called for Washington's suspension from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) along with all other nations who possess nuclear arms.

Ahmadinejad called for a global supervision of nuclear disarmament. "An independent international group which plans and oversees nuclear disarmament and prevents proliferation should be set up," the president said as he opened the conference. He said those who "possess, have used or threatened to use nuclear weapons be suspended from the IAEA and its board of governors, especially the US which has used a weapon made of atomic waste in the Iraq war."

During the two-day conference, international politicians will put their heads together to address the nuclear disarmament issue. Representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts from over 70 countries will also be taking part in the conference, which has been called "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for No One."

Foreign ministers from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, the Central African Republic, Oman, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Swaziland participated, while Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar was represented by their deputy foreign ministers, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. Mehmanparast said a special aide of the Chinese foreign minister, representatives of the United Nations and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the chief of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) will also be present.

"Due to the eruption of the volcano (in Iceland), some foreign ministers from South America and Africa who had connecting flights may come later or tomorrow. Among them are also some experts of weapons of mass destructions and nuclear weapons," he added.

Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying in recent days that the conference would serve as preparation for the next NPT review meeting in New York early next month, which Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki plans to attend.

By hosting the event, Tehran hopes to raise awareness in the international community about the fact that nuclear weapon stockpiles held by world powers are the most significant menace to world security. Nuclear doctrines, atomic discrimination, globalization of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and double standards applied by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its dealings with various states, are also to be high on the agenda. The need to make “clean and peaceful nuclear energy” available to all countries is also expected to be a highlight of the event.

The conference comes just days after Washington held its biggest ever nuclear summit. Iran criticized the 47-nation nuclear disarmament summit in Washington hosted by US President Barack Obama, on the grounds the United States holds one of the world's largest stocks of nuclear weapons.

At the US nuclear summit, Obama pressed China and other UN Security Council skeptics to back a fourth set of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program but Beijing refused to come to America’s corner.

Tensions are rising in Lebanon between elected representatives in Parliament, 'Unity' Cabinet members and the American Embassy, as the 27th anniversary of the attack 1983 attack on the US Embassy approaches and the Embassy issues another warning for Americans to leave Lebanon.

On March 29, 2010 the US Embassy instructed Americans not to travel to Lebanon citing 'safety and security concerns." Simultaneously it warned those who are in Lebanon to seriously consider leaving.

Advising that, Lebanon, placed on a US list of 14 countries "linked to Terrorism" following the Christmas Day attempted aircraft bombing near Detroit, has "the potential for a spontaneous upsurge in violence , US citizens living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks in remaining and should carefully consider those risks, as Embassy personnel may not be able to aid them in case of conflict."

The "Warder Warning" to American citizens follows a series of recent efforts by the Embassy to pressure the National Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah, currently shaping the new Unity' government with its work in Parliament and the Cabinet. It comes following Opposition charges, emphasized by Hezbollah's Secretary Hassan Nasrallah the preceding week, that the US Embassy in Beirut engages in espionage activities for Israel and cautioning that the collaboration was very dangerous for Lebanon.

According to Nasrallah during an interview with Al Manar channel: "All the information which the US embassy gathers in Beirut reaches Israel. Here we are not speaking about a normal foreign embassy which is gathering information for its own government ... When it comes to the American embassy in Beirut, it is a different story...And so what is given to the US Embassy and what reaches the Israelis, the information, all of these leads to the destruction of Lebanon. This helps the Israeli enemy to understand what is going on in Lebanon, to use this information against Lebanon and to take revenge against our country...What is the difference between espionage networks, which give information directly, or giving information by mediation, meaning giving it to the US embassy who then gives it to the Israeli side?" Nasrallah ask his viewing audience, estimated at more than 100 million viewers around the region.

April 2010 and April 1983 Parallels?

The Hezbollah Secretary-General is not the only one questioning whether the Us Embassy operates as "a normal foreign embassy" with acceptable " mild spying and information gathering" or operates as " an espionage network" for Israel and passing it intelligence reports from US assets throughout Lebanon who monitor all roads and paths from Syria as well as South Lebanon and South Beirut.

What increasingly concerns many in Lebanon is the US Embassy role in recent projects including a "security agreement between the US and the Lebanese Internal Security Force' (ISF) and the Embassy and their allies described as "an American donation" to train and equip the ISF and make Lebanon stronger.

The "donation" resulted from the January 25, 2007 Paris-3 International Conference on the support for Lebanon. As far as security is concerned, March 14 foes charge that the then pro-American-pro-Saudi Fuad Saniora government "gave away the store" to U.S. intelligence by placing data related to Lebanon's two mobile phone networks at the disposal of the United States, that it is believed would allow the Embassy and Israel to tap Lebanese phones. There is a widely held belief in Lebanon that all information the Embassy receives goes to Israel. Also protested was the adopting of the American interpretation of "terrorism" which as applied by the Embassy means that no ISF member who is a Hezbollah member could receive any training to due various US Terrorism lists issues.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Communications, the US embassy in Beirut filed a request to install reception devices in two positions in Lebanon located in mountainous areas in Aley and overlooking most of the Lebanese regions. The first is 22 kilometers away from Beirut, 760 meters above sea level and stretching over 251 hectares, while the second is 29 kilometers away from Beirut, 540 meters above sea level and stretching over 63 hectares. The US Embassy position is that it tower demand falls under the headline of technical assistance stipulated in the "donation"agreement.
Suspicion were also raised that the commando units the US wanted to train might be intended for use against the National Lebanese Resistance during a future conflicts with Israel.

On March 16, 2010, the Syrian daily Al Watan asked Lebanese MP Nawaf Mousawi about the growing concern in Parliament. Mousawi, one of Hezbollah's most popular and sought after interlocutors with American and other foreign delegations visiting Lebanon, replied:

"If the reports we read in the Lebanese papers are true, this would be a horrid scandal since it would mean that the American embassy was violating Lebanon's sovereignty and that the American security apparatuses were trying to infiltrate personal and national security in Lebanon. This would constitute an Israeli security infiltration since there is a security agreement between Israel and America in regard to the exchange of information"... "Moreover, I say that today the American embassy in Lebanon has a private militia called the embassy's guard, arresting each suspected citizen in the massive area surrounding the embassy that has become an isolated geography within the Lebanese geography. It has become a state within a state with tapping devices violating the intimacy of the Lebanese people and intelligence officers monitoring all that goes on in the ministries and public administrations. We in Lebanon now need to liberate our land from the occupation of the American militia and to liberate part of our decisions from the American occupation by limiting the relations of the American embassy to the Foreign Ministry and preventing the American apparatuses from acquiring information in Lebanon."

Crossing the Boundaries of Diplomatic Protection?

The Embassy's intense and escalating campaign against the Opposition, a main pillar of Lebanon's government, is also raising questions among International lawyers and government officials whether the Embassy has squandered its diplomatic status under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. A study in underway in Lebanon to determine the extent of the US Embassy abuse of Diplomatic Immunity. Opinions among scholars and analysts range from a raft of challenges to allowing Israel to have an 'illegal outpost" in Lebanon to sanctioning the Embassy for violations of the Vienna Convention, specifically under Art. 41 which requires that foreign Embassies, "respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State and not interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving State."

Researchers point out that 27 years ago this month, on April 18, 1983 the American Embassy was attacked as a direct and foreseeable result of the Embassy's involvement as a command and control center on behalf of Israel against the majority population of Lebanon. According to former CIA agent Robert Baer, the CIA never did determine who was behind the bombing ( there were a few dozen upstart resistance groups wanting to expel Israel in those days) but understood that it was the result of hostile US actions against Lebanon.

Food for Thought

Legal experts at the State Department privately admit that despite years of public statements to the contrary, the April 18, 1983 attack cannot be accurately labeled 'terrorism' because by bringing in and housing the command center staffed by at least 8 CIA agents and various 'special ops' units who were running a network of pro-Israel assets and providing targeting information to the USS New Jersey offshore and Israel forces in the mountains and Chouf the Embassy lost its claim to diplomatic immunity. The Embassy actions enabled the shelling of Lebanon and the killing of hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians, among many other activities.

Consequently, the Embassy became a legitimate military target udder the international laws of armed conflict. Lebanese resistance forces, who opposed the Israeli occupation of their country and their American and French allies who had abandoned their claimed role as 'peacekeepers" and in fact had taken sides in the conflict were legally within their right and duty to neutralize the threat presented. The specific and legitimate military target of the April 18,1983 attack on the US Embassy is Beirut were the eight CIA agents and their teams who had been identified by Soviet sources and the information sent to allies in Lebanon.

While no reasonable person might suggest that the Embassy is currently subject to a third attack, despite regular slafist and al Qaeda wannabe threats, observers point out the irony that it has been Hezbollah, incessantly attacked by the Embassy and its allies in the Lebanese Forces and Phalange party, (Ed: the same groups who held power in 1983 and sponsored the giveaway May 17, 1983 Agreement with Israel), that has invisibly protected the Embassy several times over the past two decades, just as it quietly provided security in south Beirut during last spring's visit of President Carter with Lebanon's Senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, still on a US Terrorism list for purely political reasons.

Lebanon's Recourse

Lebanon currently has few practical or easy diplomatic options. The ultimate sanction and prevention measure available for Lebanon is the severance of diplomatic relations. That is unlikely unless Israel attacks Lebanon for the 6th time with the predictable American 'green light'. The doctrines of self defense and self preservation are also available to Lebanon in order to prevent a foreign Embassy from facilitating aggressor against it.

Additional activities viewed as arguably incompatible with its legitimate diplomatic functions is the drum beat of attacks on certain parties in Parliament (those allied with Hezbollah) including the current widely believed to be fake "Syria gives Scuds to Hezbollah" charges. On April 15, 2010, Syria emphatically denied the charge and asked for evidence while claiming that Israel was paving the way for new military action in the region with its false allegation.

Zero evidence has been offered by Washington or the Embassy to support this rumor, which like so many these days, originated with Israel's President Shimon Peres and given credence in the US Congress and now the American Embassy. Inquiries of the American Ambassador at yesterday's talk by former US Senator Bob Graham (R-Fla.) at the American University of Beirut, as to why the Embassy offered no satellite photos for the large easily detected outdated missiles were meet mutely with a radiant and wide smile.

The US Embassy is further accused of feeding certain politicians including the Phalange and Lebanese Forces parties with disinformation to attack the Lebanese Resistance.

For example, MP Samir Geagea regularly meets and communicates with Embassy personnel and the next day invariably launches another attack aimed at lowering the high 84% polling statistics showing the level of Lebanese support for the Resistance, led by Hezbollah, deterrence capability against Israel.

MP Mousawi again: "the U.S. embassy in Awkar is harming national reconciliation efforts through the policy of sabotage and fragmentation it is adopting in Lebanon and the region."

As of the morning of April 16, 2010 the US Embassy in Beirut, said that, "the United States is "increasingly concerned" about the transfer of more sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah."But it has now admitted that it has no proof of Scuds being transferred to anyone from Syria.

As of the morning of April 16, 2010 Hezbollah intends that the Lebanese government will review every bi-lateral agreement made with the US Embassy.

- Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at fplamb@gmail.com.

The alleged deal to transfer the Scud missiles to Hezbollah has fueled cross-border tensions with the Zionist entity and could cast doubt on U.S. President Barack Obama's diplomatic outreach to Syria.

"We think the intent is there," a senior U.S. official said of Syria transferring the missiles to Hezbollah.

But the senior official and two others briefed on the case said it was unclear whether the missiles, which could hit deep inside the Zionist entity, were actually handed over in full to the resistance group. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "We believe a transfer of some kind occurred but it is unclear if the rockets themselves have changed hands," the senior official said.

A partial transfer could involve weapons parts, documents or funding, other officials said.

Another official said doubts were growing that Syria had delivered the Scuds in full and allowed them to transit to Lebanese territory: "We don't believe it happened."

Also Friday, the London-based pan Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat quoted Hezbollah's deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Qassem as saying that the allegations of an arms deal with Syria were meant to cover Israel's tense ties with the United States as well as to divert international attention from Israel's nuclear program.

While the reports of a long-range missile deal with Syria were false, the Hezbollah deputy chief added, that did not mean that the resistance organization was not continually arming itself in preparation of a possible war with Israel.

Earlier on Friday Minister Hussein Haj Hassan said that whether or not they have acquired scud missiles is none of Israel's business.

Minister Haj Hassan says the group was always arming and preparing itself but he refused to confirm or deny Israeli allegations that the group has acquired Scud missiles.

The U.S. State Department responded to the allegations on Wednesday by saying that if they were true, "it would put Lebanon at a significant risk."

Haj Hassan, meanwhile, told Al-Manar TV on Friday that since Israel possessed all kinds of weapons, it's only natural for Lebanon to have the means to defend itself against an Israeli attack.

Israeli officials say the introduction of Scuds could alter the strategic balance with Hezbollah. Hezbollah pelted Israel with nearly 4,000 unguided Katyusha rockets during the war in 2006, causing widespread damage and dozens of casualties north of the occupied territories. Scud missiles have several times the range and explosive firepower of Katyusha rockets and would pose a much more serious threat.

Recent events have awoken a concern in Washington that Israel may launch a pre-emptive strike following the reports of an arms transfer, and the administration summoned Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha for a meeting with the State Department, which relayed through him a message to Damascus not to deliver the missiles to their destination.

The ambassador in response conveyed, on behalf of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, Syria's sweeping denial of the reports and accused Israel of trying to divert attention from questions about Israel's nuclear program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear arms, though it does not confirm nor deny this.

In addition, at a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, the Syrian envoy to the UN adamantly denied the reports.

Following the reports, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a warning to the Syrians, and Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed his concerns to French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and said, "Syria is playing a double game. On the one hand, it is talking peace, and on the other hand, it is transferring precision Scud missiles to Hezbollah in order to threaten Israel."

According to Lebanon's official response, "This is an internal Lebanese matter". But US senators raised the issue during a session to confirm Robert Ford, who was appointed by the Obama administration as the US's first ambassador to Syria in five years.

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee session, senators proposed postponing Ford's appointment. Ford himself argued that such matters demonstrate the importance of having an American ambassador in Damascus. Ultimately, the committee confirmed his appointment, which now awaits the approval of the Senate plenum.

17/04/2010 At a time the international community seems to be "concerned" for one Israeli occupation soldier captured by Palestinian resistance factions, none of the Western governments bothers itself to talk about the thousands of Palestinians detained in the Israeli occupation jails.

A total of more than 760,000 Palestinians, including many minors and women, have been detained since Israel seized the West Bank along with other Arab territories in the 1967 Middle East war; however the World seems to be in a coma when the issue is related to the Palestinians.

On Saturday, Palestinians held rallies and vigils in an annual day of support for the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli occupation prisons, a day after a detainee died in custody.

In the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, people marched through the town centre, carrying pictures of imprisoned relatives or of Marwan Barghouti, a jailed leader of the mainstream Fatah party.

Barghouti, architect of the 2000 uprising (Intifada) against Israeli occupation, is serving five life terms but remains popular and is often spoken of as a successor to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. "We shall not rest until the prisoners issue is resolved," prisoners' affairs minister Issa Qaraqae told the crowd in Ramallah.

In occupied Jerusalem, relatives held pictures of their jailed loved ones at the entrance to the walled Old City, while in Gaza, foreign activists joined locals in a sit-in outside local offices of the Red Cross.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyyeh called on Palestinians to fight Israeli occupation "by any means" to put pressure on Israel to free the detainees.

Saber Abu Karsh, head of the Wa'ed Prisoners Society, said "all Palestinian factions are united in solidarity with the detainees and, in support of their cause, join their hunger strike inside the Israeli jails."

Nash'et Al-Wheidi, member of the Popular Movement to Support Prisoners, said "this tent was erected to support the prisoners in Israeli jails and to demand an end to the division that has harmed the prisoners' cause."

Last week, Qaraqe said the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has applied punitive measures to 36 Palestinian female prisoners in the Ad-Damun prison in response to the general hunger strike that began on April 7.

Qaraqe said the IPS has reduced the detainees' recess to one hour per day, prohibited them from sending letters to their family, and further enforced restricted access to the cantina, where detainees can buy stationary and other goods, because of their participation.

Moreover, the minister said the prison administration transferred a number of detainees from the Nafha prison to Ber Sheva prison in response to the hunger strike.

Detainees said they would escalate their protest if the IPS did not respond to their protests against humiliating treatment of relatives visiting detainees and banning Gaza detainees from family visitation rights for over four years.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority called on Israel to investigate the death of a Palestinian detainee in a jail in the southern occupied territories.

Qaraqi said 26 year-old Raed Abu Hammad died on Friday in solitary confinement.

An Israeli Prison Service spokesman said Hammad was found dead on the floor of his cell. Hammad was suffering from medical conditions and the Prison Service was checking the cause of his death, the spokesman said.

"We are demanding an investigation and to perform an autopsy to find out why he died," Qaraqi said. "Israel is fully responsible for the death of the prisoner because he was sick and Israel and the doctors in the prison authority knew that."

Former detainee Abed An-Naser Farawneh said Hamad’s death came as a result of "intentional medical negligence," and noted that Hammad was the 198th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Hammad was a member of the Hamas party, and was serving a prison term following his conviction in an Israeli military court on charges of attempting an attack on Israeli civilians.

More than 7,000 Palestinians, including 270 under the age of 18, are currently being held in Israeli prisons, according to data released by the Palestinian central bureau of statistics.

Three of the prisoners have been in jail for more than 30 years, and 315 for more than 15 years, the office said in a statement released on the eve of the Prisoners' Day.

Of those held, 264 are under administrative detention, meaning they are being detained without trial.

Gaza- Khaled Mishaal, the political bureau chairman of Hamas, has said that any Palestinian national reconciliation should be based on a program that protects resistance and should not be according o the international quartet's conditions.

Mishaal, delivering a phone address at a rally organized by Hamas in Gaza on Friday on the sixth anniversary of the martyrdom of its leader Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi, said that Palestinian resistance in the West Bank should act to protect the Palestinian people's rights.

He said that it was about time for the Arabs to stop their settlement process with the Israeli occupation away from power cards, adding that only the strong make peace.

The Hamas leader asked the Arab countries to support the Palestinian people's steadfastness and its resistance against occupation of its land.

Mishaal championed liberating all Palestinian prisoners using all available means, adding that they need serious action to support them in face of the Israeli escalation against them.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Palestinian prisoner Ra'ed Mohammed Abu Hammad was found dead in his cell in the Israeli Eichel prison on Friday, the Ahrar center for prisoners' studies and human rights announced.

Director of the center Fuad Al-Khafsh said in a press release that Hammad, 31, is the 198th prisoner to die in Israeli jails.

He added that Hammad, who was serving a ten-year sentence, suffered several diseases but was still held in isolation by the Israeli prisons authority (IPA) that did not heed calls for his release because of his health condition and kept him in solitary confinement.

Khafsh urged the international institutions to swiftly intervene to save the isolated and sick prisoners in Israeli jails, demanding an autopsy on the martyr's body to determine the exact cause of his death.

Hamas movement in the West Bank issued a statement on Saturday blaming the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) and the IPA for the death of Hammad in Eichel prison in Beer Sheba.

It said that the death of Hammad on the day of the Palestinian prisoner makes it imperative on all Palestinian factions and Arab leaders to prioritize the issue of those prisoners.

Detained ex-minister Wasfi Qabaha charged that the death of Hammad was the natural result of deliberate medical neglect on the part of the IPA.

He said in a press statement on Saturday from his prison cell that human rights groups must pressure the IPA into opening its jail before inspection, especially to examine the sick detainees who suffer various diseases including cancer.

Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, a Hamas leader and MP, said that Hammad, from occupied Jerusalem, died due to constant physical and psychological torture.

He urged the world community to put on trial all those responsible for such crimes against the prisoners.

Meanwhile, Khalil Al-Hayya, a political bureau member of Hamas, told a rally organized by his movement in Gaza on Friday in solidarity with prisoners that Palestinian resistance was fully entitled to trek all means to liberate Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

He expressed absolute dismay at the world's silence toward the IOA crimes against those prisoners.

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian center for the defense of prisoners has invited Friday the Palestinian people and the Arab and Muslim Ummah (Nation) to enhance their support for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, stressing that all captives must be released unconditionally.

In a statement it issued to commemorate the Palestinian prisoner day, the center pointed out that nearly 7,500 Palestinian captives were held in Israeli jails, including 340 minors, 37 females, 15 parliament members and 1,600 sick captives among others, adding that the captives live in very bad imprisonment condition and suffer from Israeli jailors' ill-treatment.

The center also pointed out that 196 Palestinian captives had passed away while in the jail due to the bad treatment and deliberate medical neglect at the hands of the Israeli occupation authority (IOA).

Further, the center said that at least 320 captives distributed on the 25 Israeli jails across occupied Palestine were classified as oldest-serving captives as they had been in jail for more than two decades now.

However, the center called on the prisoners to strengthen national unity among them in order to foil all Israeli conspiracies against them, urging, at the same time, all Palestinian, regional, and international human rights institutions to exert the maximum effort they could to pressure the IOA to stop the series of humiliation and maltreatment of the captives.

For its part, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) urged the Arab and Muslim parliaments to launch strong and comprehensive parliamentary campaign with legal and media dimensions to expose the racist Israeli behavior against the Palestinian captives, and to force it to abide by international rules and covenants regarding prisoners.

The PLC also called on the Arab and Muslim countries to keep the momentum of the importance of the prisoners issue at international forums and meetings, stressing that the Palestinian issue is a just issue and deserves full attention from the international community.

Moreover, the PLC warned that the IOA has gone beyond the limits in humiliating and maltreating the Palestinian captives due to the unexplained international silence towards such rejected behavior, underlining that the Israelis have no humanitarian or ethical deterrent to halt them from exercising abhorred practices against the innocent detainees.

In the same context, the supreme national committee for supporting the prisoners called on the Arab League to carry out the recommendations endorsed during the Arab summit in Damascus in 2008 of reviving the Palestinian prisoner day and of considering it as an Arab day to support the Palestinian captives in Israeli jails.

Baha'a Al-Madhoun, the coordinator of the committee, asserted in a statement that supporting the Palestinian captives in Israel wasn’t a Palestinian duty only but rather a duty of the Arab and Muslim Ummah because the captives sacrificed their freedom to protect the Arab and Muslim dignity.

"The Arabs have endorsed great and fantastic recommendations to support the Palestinian captives, but, unfortunately, all those recommendations were kept in the drawers and never implemented, so what are they waiting for? Are they waiting for the captives to die then to act?!", said Madhoun.

-While the whole world demands the release of the Zionist soldier Shalit, who was captured by Palestinians while he was on a mission to kill and destroy, the so-called “free world” continues to ignore that the Zionist entity holds a whole nation hostage.

The Palestinian people in occupied Palestine have been held hostage by a brutal military occupation, confined to ghettos build on their own lands.

Some 2.5 Million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are captives in their own homes, towns and villages, with military checkpoints locking them up, controlling and limiting their movement.

1.5 Million Palestinians are held hostages in the open-air prison Gaza, not allowed to leave even for urgently needed medical treatment.

In addition to that, there are over 7000 Palestinians locked up behind bars in Israeli dungeons.

These 7000 Palestinians unite occupied Palestine from the River to the Sea; they unite Jerusalem with Yafa, Jenin with Ara, Hebron with Nazareth, Gaza with Akka. These 7000 Palestinians unite families, unite the pain, unite the hope and unite the struggle for freedom.

Almost every Palestinian family has had at least one family member detained by Israel. Almost every Palestinian family has been abused by Israeli soldiers while visiting their loved ones. Almost every Palestinian family has known the pain of waiting, the fear of what might happen behind bars, the hope for a near release and a safe return home. Every Palestinian family knows the meaning of detention, has felt it directly through its members. Every Palestinian family knows the meaning of freedom, for we pay the highest price for the sake of this freedom, and we love our freedom, we cherish our freedom and we yearn for our freedom and would always fight for it.

Since 1967, Israel detained some 750,000 Palestinians, including 12,000 women and tens of thousands of children. During the First Intifada 116,000 Palestinians were detained. Since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, 70,000 Palestinians were detained, including 900 women and 8000 children. On average, 9000 Palestinians are detained yearly, including 700 children.

Alone during the first 3 months of 2010 Israel detained more than 1400 Palestinians, including 90 from Gaza (18 were fishermen and 1 child), 400 from Jerusalem and 7 female detainees. Latest statistics show that there are over 7000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention; including 35 women, 337 children, 257 administrative detainees, 15 MP and 1 minister.

The Israeli Prison Authority (IPA) refuses to recognize the legitimate rights of Palestinian political prisoners and violates these rights on a daily basis. In addition to torture, physical and verbal abuse, repeated attacks and humiliation, Palestinian political prisoners in general suffer from medical negligence and are denied proper nourishment. Cells are daily raided and searched, often at night, and the private property of prisoners is destroyed or confiscated. Family visits are restricted or cancelled and Gaza, Arab and many West Bank prisoners are denied their visitation rights completely. In the last couple of months, families of prisoners on their way to see their children were abused and humiliated at Israeli checkpoints and parents were asked to undergo naked body searches. This forced the families to return without visiting their children.

Political prisoners are further punished by the IPA through being forced to buy their own food and water for extremely high prices from the prison canteen and to pay for the water and electricity they consume through high fines imposed on prisoners for trivial reason such as leaving the bathroom one minute later than decided by the jailor. These sums are withdrawn from the prisoners’ accounts without their knowledge.

Families of prisoners are further collectively punished by Israel: some families have their homes demolished, others have their property destroyed and often parents, siblings and children of prisoners are taken as hostages to pressure prisoners into confessing to things they didn’t do.

Avigdor Lieberman, current Israeli foreign minister, stated on 07.07.2003 in front of the Israeli Knesset in a discussion on Palestinian political prisoners that “It would be better to drown these prisoners in the Dead Sea if possible, since that’s the lowest point in the world.”[1], adding that as transport minister, he would be willing to provide the buses to take the prisoners there.

Since 1967; 198 Palestinian prisoners have been killed by the IOF while in detention; 70 as a result of torture, 71 killed in cold blood after being arrested, 50 as a result of medical negligence and 7 being shot dead inside prisons by the Israeli prison authorities. The latest victim of Israeli detention being Ra’id Mahmoud Ahmad Abu Hammad, 30 years old from Izariyyeh, Jerusalem who was killed on 16.04.2010 due to medical negligence.

On 07.04.2010, Palestinian political prisoners in 10 Israeli jails and 3 military detention facilities started a 24-hour comprehensive hunger strike in protest of the inhumane treatment they get on the hands of the IPA and its use of family visits to blackmail prisoners.

This action is to be repeated on the 17th and 27th of April. As reason for their strike the prisoners gave, among others, the humiliating treatment and the abuse their families endure during visits and the cancellation of family visits for Gaza detainees since 4 years and for many West Bank detainees.

Palestinians have often protested the inhumane conditions in Israeli prisons through general hunger strikes. Previous hunger strikes include the Ramleh strike of 18.02.1969 which lasted 11 days, the Neve Tirza strike of Palestinian female prisoners on 28.04.1070 which lasted 9 days, Asqalan strike on 13.09.1973 which lasted 24 days, and the open-strike in Asqalan on 11.12.1976 which lasted 45 days and was renewed on 24.02.1977 for 20 days, the Nafha strike on 14.07.1980 for 32 days, the Jneid strike in September 1984 for 13 days, the Jneid strike on 25.03.1967 which was extended to all other prisons and lasted 20 days, the Nafha strike on 23.06.1991 for 17 days, the comprehensive strike in all prisons on 27.09.1992 which lasted 15 days, the comprehensive strike on 15.08.2004 which lasted 19 days.

Tzahi Hanegbi, former Israeli ministry for internal security, said in 2004 after Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails declared a hunger strike against the inhumane prison conditions: “They can strike for a day, a month, until death. We will ward off this strike and it will be as if it never happened. He has ordered large, open grills to be set up to barbecue meat and for bread to be baked just outside the prison doors, to torture prisoners with the smells. Prison guards are encouraged to eat all this in front of the fasting prisoners.”[2] He later said: “for all I care, they can starve to death!”[3] The IPA often tries to break up these strikes by force which had lead to the death of some prisoners.

According to various reports, hunger strike martyrs include:
1 Abdel Qader Jabir Ahmad Abu Al-Fahim, from Jabalia RC, Gaza, killed on 11.05.1970 during the Asqalan hunger strike.
2 Rasim Mohammad Halaweh, from Jabalia RC, Gaza, killed on 20.07.1980 during the Nafha hunger strike.
3 Ali Shehadeh Mohammad Al-Ja’fari, from Dheisheh RC, Gaza, killed on 24.07.1980 during the Nafha hunger strike.
4 Anis Mahmoud Douleh, from Qalqilia, killed on 31.08.1980 in Asqalan
5 Ishaq Mousa Al-Maraghah, from Silwan, Jerusalem, killed on 16.11.1983 in Beir Al-Sabi’
6 Hussein As’ad Ubeidat, from Jerusalem, killed on 04.10.1992 during the Asqalan hunger strike.-One form of punishing Palestinian political prisoners who protest Israeli inhumane treatment is isolation. Solitary confinement is used as a punishment for the slightest thing, to humiliate prisoners and to isolate them from the outside world. According to the “Detainees Centre for Prisoners Studies” there are currently 19 Palestinians prisoners in solitary confinement, including female prisoner Wafa’ Al-Bis from Gaza. Usually isolation orders are extended without reason and prisoners who are placed in isolation remain so for many years and have no access to other prisoners, no contact with the outside world or to news from other prisons.

Prisoner Mu’taz Hijazy is spending his 8th year in isolation and Jamal Abul-Haija, Ahmad Al-Mughraby and Hasan Salameh are currently spending their 5th years in solitary confinement. In isolation, many Palestinian prisoners are subjected to all forms of physical, psychological and emotional suffering. Isolation cells have an area of only 1.8m x 2.7m, including the WC. The cells are damp, badly ventilated with only one small window (causing respiratory diseases) and there is almost no room for movement. Isolated prisoners are deprived of family visitation. Family members, who often make the long and hard trip to the Israeli prisons, are often turned back without being allowed to see their loved ones. Also, those who have family members locked up as well inside Israeli jails are not allowed to see them. For example, Jamal Abul-Haija “is not allowed to see his wife Asma’a Abul- Haija, a former prisoner whose life is withering with cancer. Also, he is not permitted to see his small son and two daughters or to meet any of his three sons who are imprisoned in the occupation jails.”[4] Other punishments include sending the prisoners to the “snooker”, which a very small room (180cm x 150cm). The only facilities in the room are two containers for drinking and washing after urinating. Prisoners locked up in the “snooker” are allowed to go to the toilet only once a day. A number of isolated prisoners are in need of urgent medical treatment but do not receive it. A report of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club mentions:[5]

Hassan Salameh: suffers from an injury in the stomach inflicted upon him on his arrest.
Mohammed Jaber Abdoh: suffers from urinary tract problems.
Mu’taz Hijazy: suffers from the brutal assault on him, because of which he was transferred to the intensive care unit. He has been in solitary confinement for the past 8 years.
Yehya As-Sinwar: in need of medical treatment.

According to “the Center for Prison Studies” there are 2000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners with medical problems, 550 of them are in need of surgery. Many prisoners suffer from cancer, heart diseases, high blood pressure, respiratory and kidney diseases, diabetes, severe inflammation, bone and skin diseases, paralysis, vision loss, dental problems and other malignant or chronic diseases. Some suffer from past injuries inflicted upon them by the IOF during their arrest, or by the Israeli prison authority and the Israeli intelligence (Shabak) during interrogation and after it. Many await an inevitable death because of medical negligence, lack of appropriate medical treatment, medications and specialists to treat their cases. Reasons for the deteriorating health conditions among Palestinian prisoners include: torture, overcrowded cells, lack of hygiene in cells, high degree of moisture, dirty mattresses, unhealthy and inedible food.

Today, there are 16 Palestinian prisoners who suffer from cancer, which, according to several reports, is on the rise among Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails and among those who have been released. At least 160 Palestinian prisoners suffer from heart, kidney and blood pressure problems, 80 suffer from diabetes, 18 are paralyzed, 2 blind, tens have become handicapped in one body part after being shot at by the IOF just before their arrest and at least 12 suffer from Hemiplegia. In addition to physical suffering, more than 40 Palestinian prisoners suffer from mental and psychological ailments due to the interrogation methods used by the Israeli Shabak and the IPA which include torture. Urgently needed medical treatment is denied and often protests are needed to force a treatment or action. There are no specialists and no doctors for emergencies at night. No special diet is provided for patients who suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and often food is out-dated and poisonous. Patients who need continuous medication for their chronic disease are often deprived of the medication as punishment.

Palestinian patients are treated either in the so-called prison clinics or are sent to the Ramleh prison “hospital”. Both the “hospital” and the clinics lack basic medical equipment and supplies and are run by military personnel with little to no medical training. They are not allowed to see a specialist or be taken to a special clinic or get treatment in Israeli hospitals. Dany Naveh, former Israeli health minister, gave orders preventing Palestinian prisoners from receiving treatment in health facilities: “let them be treated where they lie … we don’t want these murderers in hospitals.”[6] At least 41 prisoners are constantly hospitalized at the Ramleh prison hospital and at least 28 prisoners are dying in Israeli prisons. Palestinian prisoners who need urgent treatment get interrogated in the so-called prison clinics and are blackmailed into giving information or admitting to things they didn’t commit. According to one report, upon arrest, Palestinian political detainees are first taken to the prison clinic for a medical test to determine their weak points so these might be used by Shabak during interrogations. Patients are transferred in vans to the Ramlah prison “hospital” instead of in ambulances and they are hand and leg cuffed. They are also hand and leg cuffed during the operations which are often conducted without anesthetic. All ailment and diseases, no matter how malignant, are “treated” with pain killers, expired or useless medicines and those who do get operated end up in a worse situation than before the operation. There is also a lack of medical equipment for chronic cases or artificial limbs and a lack of isolation rooms for patients with infectious diseases.

Those who urgently need medical help have often to wait long before receiving the appropriate treatment, i.e. if they are lucky enough to get any treatment at all, and are often left to die a slow and painful death or are treated with mere painkiller and other unknown medicines, no matter how severe the case is, while those who suffer from minor ailments end up with severe problems after they get “treated” at the so-called prison clinics. Examples exist of prisoners who needed urgent surgery but didn’t receive it, and of others who had to wait years before they were finally operated, with the condition of the patients not getting better after the operation, and others who lost their eye-sight, movement in their limbs and caught serious diseases after being “treated”. There are cases of prisoners suffering from diabetes where the deliberate delay in providing the needed medical help had led to the amputation of their limbs. Several registered cases of mass food poisoning inside the prisons strengthen what many prisoners and prisoner organizations say about Palestinian prisoners being used against their will and knowledge as test persons in medical experiments conducted by the Israeli prison authorities. One very disturbing fact is the rise in the number of cancer patients. Many reports mentions prisoners who were healthy before being detained and later developing cancer; some while in detention and other immediately after their release.

A number of prisoners with cancer were only released when their condition became hopeless and the Zionist entity wanted to avoid having the prisoner dying in its jails. Some of these cases include:
Hayel Hussein Abu Zeid: 37 yrs old from the Golan developed Leukemia while in jail and was only released when his condition proved critical and hopeless. Hayel died in hospital on 07.07.05.
Murad Ahmad Abu Aakut: 29 yrs old from Hebron, developed cancer and was release when it reached a critical stage on the condition that he comes back to prison after treatment. Murad died in hospital Jordan on 13.01.07.
Sitan Nimer Al-Wali: 42 yrs old from the Golan, was released in July 2008 as he developed cancer, still being treated.
Faiz Abdel Hadi Zeidat: 48 yrs old from Bani N’em in Hebron, developed cancer in jail and was released on 02.06.2009 to get treatment.
Hamzah Yousif Tarayra: 22 yrs old from Bani N’em in Hebron, developed cancer in jail and was released in August 2009 to get treatment.

A very recent case reported late March 2010 is that of a Palestinian prisoner who first had a mild eye infection but the IPA refused to provide needed medical treatment causing the prisoner to become blind in both eyes. Another case is of Nahid Al-Aqra’ who lost his leg due to injury before his arrest in 2007 and now faces losing his second leg (left) due to untreated infections. Raid Darabieh, 36 years old, from Jabalya RC, was diagnosed with kidney stones and was operated by the Israeli prison authority 4 times in the back and spine after the discovery of a tumor in the spinal cord. All operations failed, leaving Darabieh with open back-wounds and the loss of feeling in his feet, making him a cripple. Anas Shihadeh had an Appendectomy without any anesthetic being used. During the operation his heart stopped beating 3 times. Nur Alasa, 23, suffered from kidney failure and cirrhosis of the liver after being given pills by the Israeli prison authority as treatment for his cold. Ahmad Mustafa An-Najjar from Silwad in Ramallah and Imad Addin Zu’rub from Gaza had several operations that failed. Mohammad Abu Wahdan was tied to the bed in the “hospital” by his hands and legs and was left to die a slow and painful death. Jum’a Muhammad Musa, 66 years old and a father of 8, died on 24.12.2008 in Israeli jails after spending 10 years in the so-called Ramlah prison “hospital”. Musa was given all sorts of medicines causing him only more pain and suffering, and an injection given to him caused paralysis in his left arm and leg.

Since 1967 50 Palestinian prisoners have been killed while in detention as a result of medical negligence. Moreover, hundreds of detainees suffering from chronic diseases died after being released from jails such as Walid Al-Ghoul, Abed Wahab Al-Masri, Talal At-Tahhan, Saleh Dardonah, Ahmad Khadra, Mahmoud Abu Mathkour.

Medical negligence is one systematic policy of the IPA. Another is torture and other forms of physical abuse. 70 Palestinians prisoners have been tortured to death inside Israeli dungeons and interrogation cells. Torture is used systematically against Palestinians in Israeli jails. Israeli laws legalize torture and allow Israeli intelligence services to use “moderate degree of physical pressure”, whatever that is, against Palestinians and Arab prisoners and protect these interrogators from prosecution.

For the use of severe physical pressure, interrogates of Shabak (general security services) have to get the “permission” of their superiors. Torture is not only limited to male adult Palestinian prisoners, females and children are also tortured to extract confessions. The Israeli interrogators use over 80 methods of physical and psychological torture, including severe beating, shackling, depriving the detainees of sleep, burning detainees with cigarettes, removing their nails, shabih, freezing or boiling baths, standing for long hours, sexual harassment. “All of the detainees who are detained exposed to inhuman treatment, fettering hands and legs and covering eyes. 99% of them are beating, 93% are deprived from sleeping, 92% are forced to stand for a long time, 88% are exposed to “shabh” policy and 68% are exposed to stay what-so called fridge for hours and days” … “Concerning Israeli usage of the methods of torture for trade, Amnesty International report entitled the trades of pain stated;” Israel is the most productive state in producing different methods of torture in order to be source for trade such as shackling, chemical substances, tear gas, electro-shock and poisonous drugs.”[7]

Among the over 7000 Palestinian prisoners locked up inside Israeli jails, there are 313 “Veteran Prisoners”. The “Veteran Prisoners” is an expression used by prisoner movements and organizations to refer to Palestinian prisoners who have been locked up in Israelis jails since before the signing of the so-called peace agreement between Israel and the PLO in May 1994. Of these 126 are from the West Bank, 125 from Gaza, 41 from Jerusalem, 20 from Palestinians areas occupied in 1948 and one prisoner from the Golan. There are 115 Palestinian prisoners who have spent more than 20 years inside Israeli jails. These prisoners are called the “Deans of Prisoners” and among them there are 14 “Generals of Patience”, a term given to Palestinian prisoners who have been locked up behind Israeli bars since more than 25 years.

Every now and then we are read in newspapers, on websites or watch on TV reports on Gilad Shalit, the Israeli occupation soldier who entered occupied Gaza to kill innocent Palestinians civilians and who has been made a “victim” in American and European media. Some European countries have even granted this occupation soldier honorary citizenship and his parents were flown from country to another to give interviews on the “suffering” of their son and demand his release. One particular report showed a photo of Gilad’s supporters standing near tens of life-size cardboards of the soldier. Palestinians demanding the release of their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children would not need to make hundreds of copies of one prisoner because we have thousands behind bars. The hypocrisy is that while the world demands the release of this one single Israeli occupation soldier, it is silent about the thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, including women and children who are kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night, from their schools, from their work place and locked up in Israeli dungeons.

Palestinian political prisoners lost their freedom in the fight for the freedom of Palestine and for our freedom. Their “road of suffering” begins with the minute of their arrest. They are often brutally beaten by the IOF upon arrest, to be then handed over to the Israeli intelligence “Shabak”, who don’t hesitate to use all forms of physical and psychological torture to extract confession. Those who survive the Shabak interrogation are then handed over to the Israeli prison authority, which runs some Nazi-like prison facilities, death cells waiting to engulf Palestinians. Here, Palestinian prisoners are subjected to an inhumane treatment much similar to methods used by the Nazis in Concentration camps, such as conducting medical experiments on powerless prisoners, or neglecting their injuries and ailments leaving them to die an agonizing and slow death, or defining Palestinian prisoners according to their given numbers and not as human beings with names.

Despite all, these Palestinian prisoners fight as one against the injustices inflicted upon them, against the atrocities of their executioners. Their fight is a daily fight; for they have to fight for the food they eat and the water the drink and the air they breathe. They fight for their right to see their families, to get medical treatment, to get decent food fit for human consumption, to sleep at night, to walk and see the sun during the day, to read books and newspapers, to watch television and hear a radio and get legal support. It is a daily fight to survive a prison institution that is run by a terror state that wouldn’t hesitate in shooting at unarmed prisoners who go on hunger strikes in protest of the treatment they receive; A prison institution that wouldn’t hesitate in sending a terminally ill Palestinian prisoner back to his cell with a pill of Acamol; a useless pain killer, and ignore his screams of pain all night long; A prison institution that wouldn’t hesitate to lock up blind and handicapped Palestinian prisoners in isolation cells which are not fit to be used as a pig’s pens; A prison institution that feeds and thrives on the lives of Palestinian children, women, men and elderly.

Almost every single day there are news and reports of nightly raids, of mass arrests, of more suffering inside Israeli jails, of more horrors and new crimes being committed against Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli prison authority. No matter how many times we raise the issue of Palestinian prisoners, we will not do them justice. Those who are locked up behind bars are denied the sight of the green meadows of Palestine and the smell of the Taboon bread. They are denied the sight of their families, the hug of their mothers, the talk with their fathers. They are denied the chance to say goodbye to those family members who die waiting and hoping. They are denied the sight of their children, seeing them grow up, sharing their joy, comforting them. They are denied all this because of their love of Palestine and their fight for freedom, which is a legitimate right.

Every nation has the right to fight for its freedom, for its legitimate rights and for the future of its children. These freedom fighters locked up behind Israeli bars also depend on us to fight for them, to carry their fight to the outside world, to remind the world of their suffering and their sacrifices. It is our word they depend upon, our word to inform those at home and those far away, to mobilize people on their behalf, to uncover the crimes being committed against them behind locked doors, and to keep their issue on the top of our national priorities.

Unfortunately, while some arrests make the headlines, tens of other arrests remain sidelines, numbers added to the list of thousands locked up inside Israeli jails. Regardless of the excuses given, ALL Palestinian prisoners deserve our interest and our work and campaigning for their freedom, and they don’t deserve to be reduced to a single line added to certain petitions whenever we find it appropriate or necessary. And as long as there is still one single Palestinian political prisoner in Israeli jails, it is our duty to talk about them, to write about them and demand their release, every single one of them! It is our duty to mobilize local and international support and efforts for their protection and release. It is our duty to expose the crimes committed against them and the daily violation of their human rights starting with their right to be free. The 7000 Palestinians are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, cousins, they are our families, they are us, every single one of us. Their pain is our pain, their suffering is our suffering, their struggle is our struggle, their captivity is our captivity and their freedom is our freedom. We are their voice and they depend on us to keep their issue alive and not forgotten.

According to latest statistics there are:
Over 7000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
35 Palestinian women inside Israeli jails
337 Palestinian children inside Israeli jails
15 members of the Palestinian Parliament
19 Palestinian prisoners in isolation cells
257 Palestinian administrative detainees
2000 Palestinian prisoners in need of medical care
16 Palestinian prisoners suffer from cancer
160 Palestinian prisoners suffer from heart, kidney and blood pressure problems
80 Palestinian prisoners suffer from diabetes
12 Palestinian prisoners suffer from Hemiplegia
40 Palestinian prisoners suffer from mental and psychological ailments due to the interrogation methods used by the Israeli Shabak and the Israeli prison authorities, which include torture
198 Palestinian prisoners have been killed by the IOF since 1967: 70 as a result of torture, 71 killed in cold blood after being arrested, 50 as a result of medical negligence and 7 being shot dead inside prisons by the Israeli prison authorities
313 Palestinian “Veteran Prisoners” have been locked up in Israelis jails since before 1994
115 Palestinian “Deans of Prisoners” have spent 20+ years inside Israeli jails
14 Palestinian “Generals of Patience” have spent 25+ years inside Israeli jails